Saint Arnold Elissa IPA

After a long holiday weekend, I’m stoked and ready to tackle this work week. OK, just kidding. I wish it were still the weekend. I had a pretty chill weekend overall. Had some friends over for dinner Saturday night, had a party with college buddies to say goodbye to our friend who has joined the army (Hooah Frank), and then spent Monday by the pool at the inlaws. Not a single beer review that entire time. Methinks it is time to get back to business.

This Saint Arnold Elissa IPA is THE last beer I have to review from the batch that Ilya sent me. So sad. It’s all good though…I thoroughly enjoyed all the beers that came in the care package.

I actually have more free beer headed my way! Later this week I’m expecting some Narragansett Fest beer to show up at my doorstop. And then, at some point a little later, I should be receiving a bunch of beers from North Dakota from Mike Biewer of Mike’s Brew Review fame.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It’s IPA-ing time!!!!

I have to be 100% honest and tell you that I wasn’t looking forward to this review. American IPAs just don’t do it for me anymore. “The Bitter” always attacks my tongue too much. I knew I had to make this review happen, so I sucked it up tonight.

I’m frankly surprised that the beer isn’t as bitter as I imagined. It’s got a bunch of grapefruit citrus bitter up front with some mild pine in the back. Balanced out REAAALLY well with malty deliciousness…almost tastes like honey actually.

Overall I really dig this Elissa IPA! I even had to run over to Beer Advocate to verify that this was an American IPA rather than the less oppressive cousin English IPA. It indeed is an American IPA.

2 thoughts on “Saint Arnold Elissa IPA”

Josh, REALLY glad you enjoyed this beer! I’ve found the same qualities in this IPA. It’s far more mellow and toned down than the typical hopped up IPA’s we’re used to seeing. This beer is far better on tap too…which one can only find here in Texas 😉